Georgie finally gets to wear his Christmas present from Karl

Leader of Oceania speaks to the troops
Originally uploaded by vegacura.

Taking the morning newspaper out of its jaunty blue New York Times plastic bag and opening it up to see this picture take up nearly half of the front page above the fold, brought to mind some serious worst-case scenario fears, that's for sure.

Nobody heard what Big Brother was saying. It was merely a few words of encouragement, the sort of words that are uttered in the din of battle, not distinguishable individually but restoring confidence by the fact of being spoken. Then the face of Big Brother faded away again, and instead the three slogans of the Party stood out in bold capitals:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

I have the feeling that this little Eisenhower number has been in the First Closet for months, but Rove wouldn't let him wear it. "After the election, Mr. President, after the election."